{"id":10176,"date":"2026-04-06T16:25:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/what-do-marketers-need-to-know-about-washingtons-commercial-email-statute-hinch-newman-llp\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:25:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:25:44","slug":"what-do-marketers-need-to-know-about-washingtons-commercial-email-statute-hinch-newman-llp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/what-do-marketers-need-to-know-about-washingtons-commercial-email-statute-hinch-newman-llp\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do Marketers Need to Know About Washington\u2019s Commercial Email Statute? | Hinch Newman LLP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Washington\u2019s Commercial Electronic Mail Act<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> (\u2018CEMA\u201d or the \u201cStatute\u201d) was enacted in 1998. Along with aggressive California ((Business & Professions Code \u00a717529.5) and federal anti-SPAM litigation, the Statute is utilized by plaintiffs to threaten and pursue email litigation exposure, including class action litigation, to brands and affiliates that utilize email communications as part of direct marketing campaigns. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What Does the Washington Anti-SPAM Statute Prohibit?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In part, the Statute <\/span><\/span>prohibits<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> sending commercial email containing subject lines with any false or misleading information. A plaintiff is not required to plead or establish that it suffered any damages. Statutory damages are available for violation of up to $500, per violation.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Important Amendment to CEMA<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On March 23, 2026, Washington\u2019s governor signed an <\/span><\/span>amendment to CEMA<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> that most importantly decreases statutory damages from $500 per violation to $100. The amended Statute also adds a knowledge requirement. A plaintiff must know establish that the sender knew or reasonably should have known about the misleading nature of the subject line at the time the message was disseminated.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A win for marketers!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The amendment following the landmark decision in <\/span><\/span>Brown v. Old Navy, LLC <\/span><\/span>where a Washington court held that CEMA prohibits the use of any false or misleading information in the subject line of a commercial email.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The amended CEMA is effective June 2026 and applies to causes of action filed after the effective date, regardless of when the conduct occurred. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

No What?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Marketers should <\/span><\/span>implement proactive compliance measures<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> to reduce the risk of anti-SPAM litigation demands and formal legal action. Contact experienced email marketing counsel to discuss various risks and strategies to mitigate liability exposure.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington\u2019s Commercial Electronic Mail Act (\u2018CEMA\u201d or the \u201cStatute\u201d) was enacted in 1998. Along with aggressive California ((Business & Professions Code \u00a717529.5) and federal anti-SPAM litigation, the Statute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3563,6746,7662,7550,7660,7663,4249,7661],"class_list":["post-10176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-commercial","tag-email","tag-hinch","tag-llp","tag-marketers","tag-newman","tag-statute","tag-washingtons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}